Christie pledges $5 million in effort to help save HUMC

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie yesterday said he would pledge $5 million in state funds to jump-start bankruptcy negotiations key to the sale of Hoboken University Medical Center to the ownership group of the Bayonne Medical Center.

Christie's announcement came less than 24 hours after the talks nearly collapsed and the Hoboken City Council shot down a proposal to issue $5 million in bonds to help entice reluctant creditors to settle with the hospital.

Minutes after that vote, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said the hospital would surely close.

"It is completely unacceptable that the City Council placed local politics ahead of the 1,300 employees at the Hoboken University Medical Center and the people in the community who rely on the critical services provided by this hospital," Christie said in a statement.

It's the second time Christie has committed state dollars to the deal.
He supported an $11 million earmark in the current budget for the city to pay the interest on $52 million of debt that would be retired as part of the sale.

Even with the promise of cash, creditors and the hospital failed to reach any agreement yesterday. Christie said unions are to blame, but labor leaders said the governor is trying to set them up as the scapegoat if the hospital closes.

Virginia Treacy, head of the nurses union, said unions have only have two votes on a committee of seven people. "Contrary to the governor's statement, the unions are not holding up anything," she said.

The creditors are owed $34 million, and the hospital initially offered $5 million to settle, along with protection for the city and the authority from future lawsuits. The state money would double that amount.

Christie said the state needed to intervene because if the hospital closes 1,300 jobs would be lost and the city would be saddled with unbearable payments on $52 million in bonds that it guaranteed when it bought the hospital in 2007.

Council members opposed to the bond said Zimmer has kept them in the dark since she started looking for a buyer months ago.

"This is a long con and you're the grifter in charge," Councilman Mike Russo told Zimmer during Wednesday's testy meeting, at which a spectator lunged at him for opposing the bond.

Since taking control of the Bayonne Medical Center in 2008, the ownership group of Vivek Garipalli, James Lawler and Jeffrey Mandler made numerous political contributions, including $100,100 to Democratic lawmakers and the party's state committee, records show.

The group also contributed $25,000 to Reform Jersey Now, a political action committee with close ties to Christie.